Monthly Archives: July 2012

Why would a tenured professor quit academia to work in industry? Most would answer this question with recourse to salary figures or the greater opportunities for upward mobility. Terran Lane, a former computer science professor at the University of New … Continue reading →

The comments to this piece demonstrate the on-going issues arising from the merger of “college” (oriented on teaching) with “university” (oriented on research). Denied Tenure, a Professor Burns His Bridges – Faculty – The Chronicle of Higher Education.

Philosophy of science has pegged this question as the beating heart of the Enlightenment’s leaps and bounds in fields of science: the search for the absolute truth of nature. Robert Crease argues in his recent book World in the Balance … Continue reading →

The use of high-volume hydraulic fracturing for natural gas drilling has ignited a fiery political debate. Advocates tout natural gas as a clean-burning, cheap, and abundant fuel that can boost economic growth and energy security. Detractors question these benefits and … Continue reading →

So, if I understand this correctly, the Higgs boson is actually a derivative of the Higgs field. Higgs Boson particle discovery explained by scientists and journalists.. And the Higgs field is something like the condition for the possibility of charisma? … Continue reading →

This is fascinating from the viewpoint of philosophy of science — not the discovery itself, but what it may mean for physics. Physicists Find Elusive Particle Seen as Key to Universe – NYTimes.com. What we seem to have here is … Continue reading →

This is even more interesting — if less sexy — than the fight over whether Pluto should be a planet. Redefining the Kilogram | The Scientist. I agree that this is about more than ‘just the science’ — or rather, … Continue reading →

Here Dave Roberts interviews venture capitalist Michael Leibreich on the future of solar energy, part three of a three part interview. Leibreich’s answer to Dave’s final question raises an interesting point about the way we think about interest/discounting rates, how we value … Continue reading →

Here Michael Levi of the Council on Foreign Relations argues that the SCOTUS ruling on the Affordable Care Act bodes well for the constitutionality of environmental policies that use taxes to influence our behavior. Of particular interest to me here … Continue reading →